Reading the 2015 Boston Book Festival

In the world of Netflix, social media, and smartphones that subject us to an endless barrage of communications and distractions, a book festival that attracts tens of thousands of annual guests may seem incongruous. But the Boston Book Festival proves that a love of the literary is here to stay. Boasting a cast of presenters that ranges from Margaret Atwood to Neil Gaiman, the festival is a free celebration of books with a bustling schedule. This year’s festival resides within and around Copley Square and kicks off with a short keynote address by Atwood on Friday, Oct. 23, followed by a crowded day of sessions including book discussions, writer’s workshops, and musical performances on Saturday, Oct. 24.

The festival’s history traces back to founder Deborah Z. Porter realizing that Boston was one of the few major cities that lacked a large-scale literary celebration. Gathering support from local organizations ranging from public libraries to literary groups, the project to establish a festival quickly picked up steam. The first Boston Book Festival in 2009 drew in a crowd of 10,000 people, overflowing their allotted venue. Since then, it’s grown in scope, according to Porter. Last year, the festival attracted about 30,000 visitors.

What makes the Boston Book Festival special is a focus on diversity and accessibility through novel outreach programs like “One City One Story,” specifically designed to bring the literary to those in the city who might not otherwise consider it a part of their lives. With the support of a hardworking team of staff and volunteers, this year’s festival strives to engage even more people than ever before.

FREE FOR ALL

Setting it apart from many other literary festivals around the country, the Boston Book Festival has maintained free admission for all attendees (with the exception of two ticketed events this year) in a move to increase accessibility to the literary world. “It’s important to me that it’s free,” Porter says. “If we were to charge $10 per session, we wouldn’t have as many people. I want to have those people.”

The motivation of maintaining free admission is to appeal to as many people as possible. “We try to appeal to a wide cross section.” Further, to continue to achieve this goal, the festival is looking to improve its audience engagement. Fresh to their lineup is a session discussing the mechanisms by which the fantasy worlds found in “Dungeons and Dragons” and “Star Wars” have “captured our collective imaginations and turned escape into an experience of community and collaboration,” as the Boston Book Festival website declares, and a literary trivia quiz. Additionally, the festival features “craft sessions,” in which successful authors take snippets of their work and dissect the thought process behind them for their audience.

Of course, throwing a large festival in the center of Boston is not free, and the organizers turn to sponsor support and donations to keep afloat. “I want the people who can afford it to give what they can,” Porter says. “The people who are enjoying the festival can help support it.”

Norah Piehl, the festival’s deputy director, also stresses that donations are a great way to help out the organization. Donors receive gifts ranging from “swag bags” to invites to exclusive cocktail parties with the presenters as thanks for their contributions. And for those who can’t donate, there is always the option to donate time instead. ”We always, always need volunteers,” Piehl says, adding that between 250 and 300 volunteers help run the festival each year.

Without the burden of an admissions fee, the festival has steadily attracted more visitors. “You end up going into all of these places you normally wouldn’t. Small churches and places like those, that’s where everything is,” Laurence A. Ralph, an associate professor of the social sciences in Anthropology and African and African Americans Studies, says of the allure of the festival. “Places you wouldn’t normally go into because it isn’t a shop or something. And then you get people shopping on Newbury Street or something coming and seeing what’s happening and becoming engaged.”

However, the actual attendance at the festival is somewhat skewed. “In general we have a highly educated audience. Our surveys show that half our audience has been to a graduate school,” Porter says. She adds that the attendees are predominantly female.

ONE CITY ONE STORY

In addition to increasing audience engagement through free admission, the Boston Book Festival began a program after the first festival in 2009 called “One City One Story” to reach out to the entire city in the weeks leading up to the festival. The phenomenon of an all city read, where a single book is selected to be read and discussed by an entire city was becoming increasingly popular in large metropolises such as Boston. Considering that the demographic they wanted to target might not be inclined to purchase or check out an entire book from a library, the idea of an all-city read was retooled to an all-city short story read, Piehl explains.

Since 2010, “One City One Story” has annually selected a short story and distributed it for free throughout the Boston area. Each year’s story can be found in booklet form in locations such as the Boston Public Library, the Harvard Book Store, and even at select Dunkin’ Donuts shops. It is also distributed en masse at various events around Boston leading up to the festival. This year, the story was given out at the Latino Family Festival, the Cambridge Carnival, the Boston Local Food Festival, and many more. A total of 30,000 copies of this year’s short story “Home Movie” by Jennifer De Leon has been distributed this year—25,000 in English and 5,000 in Spanish.

The culmination of “One City One Story” is a live, town hall style discussion at the Boston Book Festival, explains Niki Marion, the “One City One Story” project manager. The audience has a chance to interact with the author of the story and as a community. “It’s very much more a community interactive experience,” Marion says. “The moderator really engages the audience. We want people to come to the discussion ready to share their thoughts and to engage with the story.”

Piehl explains that they “try to find a story by a local author that will connect with people in the city.” The first story chosen was “The Smile on Happy Chang’s Face” by Tom Perrotta. “We want something that has a high level of literary quality, but also something that will connect with a wide range of readers,” Piehl says. “It’s a challenge, to be honest. The reality of the publishing industry is that not as many authors of color are publishing as any of us would like.”

Looking forward, “One City One Story” aims to expand more into communities within Boston, especially high schools. “I’m always interested in hearing the voices of the young people who are reading—how they’re reading it and how they engage with it,” Marion says.

FROM LAPTOP TO CITY

Beyond its wide circulation, what makes “One City One Story” special is that it takes open submissions from authors each year. This year’s author, De Leon, had submitted in previous years before being accepted this winter with her short story. Her story focusses on an immigrant family struggling with their differences in opinion as to whether or not Boston has become their home. “I think ‘Home Movie’ hits a lot of themes happening in the city right now. In terms of immigration and what does home mean,” De Leon says. “I hope this story can give people a different perspective on the immigrant experience. It’s hard to get a 360 degree view, so even if it’s just another degree, I hope it gives people a view of new experiences.”

De Leon feels like reception of her work through “One City One Story” has been great, adding that she has been contacted repeatedly by readers who connected deeply with the themes in her story. “Writers work on a laptop in their room and never think about it going out to a city of people,” she says.

De Leon has been involved in several community discussions of “Home Movie” so far, and she plans to attend as many as possible leading up to the festival. “I think the library was happy that it wasn’t their typical audience,” she says, explaining that she thinks the typical audience would be self-selecting. “The conversations we had were so rich, I sense that they are immigrants themselves or children of first generation immigrants. I think they are teachers as well, or people who work with immigrants.” She commends the portability of the booklets, and the wide accessibility of distribution, especially the choice to print in Spanish this year, which she describes as being a major component for many people picking up the story at the Latino Family Festival, which she attended.

OLD MEDIA IN A DIGITAL WORLD

Keeping up with new ways of reading, “One City, One Story” is offered in digital form, including PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats. De Leon, Marion, and Piehl all speak of the importance and popular appeal of having a well-made physical booklet. Despite the increasing integration of technology and digital services into our lives, those involved with the festival are not worried that printed books are going anywhere soon.

In fact, for some, the emerging prevalence of social media is a new tool to be used for the advancement of of printed books. Ralph’s most recent book, which he is presenting at the festival, is called “Renegade Dreams: Living Through Injury in Gangland Chicago.” Through his work, he has dealt with the relationship between fast moving social media and the slower paced literary world. “Social media condenses a lot of information into a headline...that [headline] can really strike a chord with people,” he says. To him, it is the role of expanding upon that headline and discussing it in depth that is in the realm of the literary.

Rosabeth M. Kanter, a professor at Harvard Business School, a presenter at the festival, and recently the author of “MOVE: Putting America's Infrastructure Back in the Lead,” argues that social media platforms and books do not compete because they serve different functions. “For some people they replace books, but I think that for most people they lead them to something bigger. Old media tends to thrive in strange ways alongside of new media,” she continues, adding that that radio was supposed to be killed off by the rise of television, but instead has flourished in new ways. “The old ones don’t completely disappear, but they have to change. Change their form, change their attitude, adapt to the new technology.”

Books importantly set themselves apart from social media, Kanter continues. “It’s the book length, long form reading that I think is important to preserve. Otherwise people get their information through 140 characters,” she says. “Books are an opportunity to explore something in depth, to draw people in, and to learn more than the headline. This makes them more informed people, more informed citizens.” To Kanter, the book festival is special in that it allows people to meet authors and then walk away with a real conversation and a physical book. “A book is a way to talk to people that I wouldn’t normally meet in a conversation.”

Lisa Randall, a Harvard Professor in the Physics Department, is presenting her new book “Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs” at the festival this year. “It’s an era where we worry about books,” Randall says. “I think the fear is a little overstated. I think there’s a general concern about whether people will continue to read. Both fiction and nonfiction books play a very unique role, to the extent that they can tell a story that people don’t know.”

REACHING EACH OTHER

The narrative of “One City One Story” has been one of success. “The community really appreciates what we do,” Marion says, discussing how delighted people were to see her begin to distribute the booklets around the city this year. “We know that people are excited for the story and are excited for the festival, across all of Boston and all backgrounds. It’s really rewarding to see that.”

Moreover, “One City One Story” has aided in the festival’s goal of creating a sense of community among the attendees. As a long time participant of the festival, Ralph appreciates the ease with which they can interact not only with the authors and presenters but with each other. “The festival is an opportunity to engage with people, not necessarily one on one, but in a different way than we do over social media.”

Piehl echoes with Ralph’s statement. “At the book festival people have a connection,” she adds. “30,000 people who are propelled by their love of reading or of the authors make their way into this small space. It’s really gratifying to see that sense of community around that sense of enthusiasm for the power of reading, and of books.”

More ways to while away a lazy afternoon, a solitary meal, or a bus ride to work other than read a book are invented every day, but the staff and annual attendees of the Boston Book Festival are there to remind us that books still maintain a special place in the heart of the city. “A culture has to celebrate the things that are important,” Porter says. “And this is important.”